Lowes in Sanford FL
Since I was looking for a vacuum cleaner today I had to visit 2 local home improvement warehouse stores: Home Depot and Lowes. To make a long story short: no, I didn’t find what I was looking for. Nevertheless, I took my daily pics at the two locations. I couldn’t help but wonder: are you a Home Depot or Lowes person? Is there even a difference?
Home Depot Lake Mary
For my part, I mostly visit Home Depot (of course only if I have to because I am by no means a handy girl…), however that is more out of convenience. The location is just closer to where I am located and you can reach Home Depot easier from I-4. I mean it basically is right off the Exit 98 in Lake Mary.
I have to say though, when it comes to their advertising and branding, I prefer Lowes. They are just so much more my style – and they have a partnership with HGTV which is one of my favorite channels (yes, even in my spare time I have to look at real estate…). Also, and I am not sure why that was, I noticed that Lowes keeps their store temperature higher. It actually felt quite pleasant to be in there compared to Home Depot. Now I am not sure if they did it because they need to save money or because they are green. The latter I would prefer because I think being green is NOT about saving money, it is about saving the environment. The money saving is just a nice side effect.I wish LOWES was a bit better located because to drive all the way down Lake Mary Boulevard in order to get there is not time smart and not green because of the gas pollution. But then again, how often am I really going?
Anyway, are you a Home Depot or Lowes person and why? Just curious…
Here’s both stores info in case you need some tools 😉
Home Depot Lake Mary
4600 W Lake Mary Blvd,
Lake Mary, FL 32746
(407) 333-9650
Lowes Sanford
3780 S Orlando Dr
Sanford, FL 32773
(407) 430-4060
Interesting that you think being green is about saving the environment and not about saving money. My view of reality is exactly the opposite; our world is motivated by green (as in greenbacks, the color of cold, hard cash), and we will never stop burning coal to make electricity until solar/wind/nuclear is cheaper, we will never stop burning gas in our cars until electric cars are cheaper (the only production electric car I know of, the Tesla roadster, is still over $100k), and a lower middle class family with kids and limited income will buy an affordable house with no “green” features so long as said features substantially add to the cost.
Some people feel good about spending more money to go green, but the real way to save the world is to develop and engineer green solutions that are competitive and cost effective. Otherwise, being green will remain a niche hobby for the rich.
Home Depot.
HD is cheaper, has better quality brands (when HD or Lowe’s has an exclusive or strong agreement with a manufacturer), offers more “pro” products and offers more extensive services.
It seems HD sells more stuff for when you want to DIY and know what you’re doing, but they also offer more extensive services for the times when you just want to pay someone else to do it.
Here’s another point in favor of HD, they frequently offer no payments/interest for 12 months. Lowe’s never seems to do that. We just bought a house and floated a new roof and windows for 12 months until we can get a home equity line to pay it off. It’s nice to defer payments on stuff you really need but can pay for right away because of the big fat down payment you just made…
I’m absolutely a Home Depot girl, through and through. I find that Lowes generally doesn’t have what I want, and when they do it’s more expensive. The employees at Home Depot are also great–they usually ask what kind of project I’m working on and they get excited to give me tips about how to make it more effective and ways that I hadn’t thought of.
My only complaint is that the Home Depot website is impossible to navigate. You can’t do online research of their inventory before you go to the store because a lot of what they have in stores isn’t listed online. You just have to go the store trusting that they have whatever you need in stock.